Consumers' Attitude in Green Purchasing

Abstract

Although consumers seem to attach great importance to sustainability and even demand companies to produce their products in an environmental friendly way, consumers’ green purchasing behavior lags far behind; an attitude-behavior gap exists. In addition, young consumers are the ones that could and should make the difference in green purchasing behavior in the future. The present study investigates how the attitude-behavior gap among young consumers can be minimized for that two studies were conducted. Results show that an attitude-behavior gap only exists between the attitude towards sustainability and een purchasing behavior, but not when it concerns the attitude towards green products and the attitude towards purchasing een products. The factors which positively influence the attitude-behavior relation are: consumer awareness, receiving health benefits, willingness to pay price premium, subjective norm, perceived consumer effectiveness, perceived motivation of the organization, availability of products, willingness to spend the shopping time on purchasing green products and receiving local community benefits and lastly the perceived price of green products negatively influences the attitude behavior relation. The present study contributes to the understanding of the attitude-behavior relation in young consumers’ green purchasing behavior and shows that this relation is complex. However, the attitude-behavior relation can be strengthened by communication efforts. Practical implications and future research suggestions are discussed.